Law enforcement says Shooters has never posed a problem; store employees, police cite sales volume for its No. 10 ranking.

A Jacksonville gun dealer that bustled with customers Monday has been ranked 10th in the nation for traces of firearms recovered by police, according to a study released by the Washington Post.

Shooters Firearms and Accessories on University Boulevard West sold 1,320 guns that were traced back to it as the point of origin, according to the nationwide study by the Post.

The newspaper obtained the names of the gun dealers nationwide with the most traces over the past four years. That information has been shielded since 2003, when gun lobbyists convinced Congress to pass a law to keep that database from being accessed by the public.

A high number of guns traced to a store does not necessarily signal wrongdoing, the newspaper said. The number of traces a store generates is shaped by many factors, including volume, the type of guns sold, geography and clientele, it reported.

Law enforcement officials in Jacksonville said Shooters has never posed a problem and is cooperative with police.

Monday, an employee at the store who declined to give his name said the store is one of the largest dealers in the nation and that volume alone is the reason the number of recovered guns can be traced back to the store.

He likened the situation to automobile dealer "Jerry Hamm selling Chevrolets." Of Chevrolets in accidents, a higher percentage is bound to come from a high-volume dealer, he said.

The family-owned Shooters has been in operation 22 years and stocks more than 5,000 models of guns and accessories, according to its website.

Earlier, a store manager who identified himself to the Post as Mike said there's little the store can do to prevent guns being used in crimes. The buyers "fill out the federal document, pass the background check, and from there it is not our control," he said.

Chief Michael Williams, who heads the Homeland Security, Narcotics and Vice division of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, said Shooters has always been "most cooperative" with police.

He said Shooters is a high-volume dealer, which could account for its standing on the list.

A gun-crimes unit within Williams' division targets felons possessing firearms and straw purchases - the use of a qualified buyer to make purchases of weapons for criminals and others who do not qualify to own guns.

Williams said the unit recovers between 2,000 and 2,200 guns a year. He said the unit traces every gun it recovers, including those used in crimes, as well as those found with stolen goods or on the side of the road.

For a gun used in a crime, they also look at the amount of time between the purchase and the crime. The shorter the time frame, the greater the possibility for concern, he said.

"I think the trend is more and more agencies are tracking every gun to see where it came from," he said.

Dominick Pape, special agent in charge of the Jacksonville office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the number of stolen guns has an impact.

"I think what people have to realize is many guns are stolen from houses and in burglaries," he said.

Pape said the agency hasn't had any problem with Shooters.

Topping the overall list with about 2,390 traces is Vance Outdoors in Columbus, Ohio. Owner Todd Vance said his that grandfather started the business on Cleveland Avenue in 1938 and that the store is a top source for shooters, hunters, anglers and boaters in central Ohio.

"We are one of the higher-volume gun dealers," he said. "We sell thousands of guns."

Vance said that he and his employees are "very vigilant" about straw purchases, in which someone buys for a person prohibited from owning a gun, and that they turn down 10 to 20 suspicious sales a week. He said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducts a monthlong inspection annually.

No. 2 on the list is Hyatt Coin & Gun in Charlotte, N.C., with about 2,055 traces. Larry Hyatt's father opened the store in 1959. Hyatt's 81-year-old mother runs the cash register, and his wife and son work in the 20,000-square-foot store.

"We're not going to let anything go wrong here," said Larry Hyatt, 63. "No one here is going to disobey the law. Nobody buys a gun from this store without being checked out."

Hyatt said the high number of traces is a public-relations problem - "It just doesn't sound good" - but he attributed it to large volume and longevity.

"We're one of the oldest gun stores and sell the most guns in the Southeast," he said. "We've sold nearly a million guns. We have a 6,000-gun inventory and sell 50 guns a day. People buy here from 100 miles away because I have four gunsmiths to repair guns."

Most times, Hyatt said, the guns recovered in crimes don't come directly from his store. Once firearms leave his store, he said, they can be stolen or sold to another person on the street or at a gun show, and often they are resold several times. Guns are also inherited when a firearms owner dies.

"Every gun you sell, you have to worry," Hyatt said. "It's a dangerous product. We certainly don't want our guns in the wrong hands. But 99 percent of them are used properly: hunting, self-defense, target shooting, collecting and law enforcement."

I just don't like too much govt intrusion in my life. Let me decide what I want my kids, if they weren't grown, not the govt.

Guns, you know many progressive, liberal, democratic what ever term you use want to restrict gun ownership etc. and have for years.

The media, some exceptions, are also progressive, liberal what ever and want to restrict gun ownership etc.

Just look at the recent article ref Shooters and several other high volume guns shops where guns orig purchased from them have been recovered from being used in a crime.

The authorities stated plainly that Shooters has no issues with them and that they follow the rules in selling guns. They do the backgrounds, all the proper paperwork etc and the article did mention it but, in my opinion, only in passing.

So the liberal attitude is stop all gun sales.

Maybe we can make a deal, we loose the 2nd ammendment and they take away the 16th to. (tongue in cheek) Like that will ever happen, the 16th I mean.

> Want your guns and will never stop trying to restrict your access
> and then when we are no longer a free nation they will ask "How
> did this happen?" and the saddest part is they still won't realize
> they are the reason.

Galt carries a gun because he doesn't want to be a victim? I figured an intellectual and all around good guy like you, Galt, was friends with everyone. Then again perhaps you have enemies. For instance, the gun packing liberal lunatic fringe may have you in their sights. Hard to say, killer.

Oh yeah, CuriousMe, nobody wants anything from you. You are way too scary.

Frankly I'm happy when Jacksonville makes the news. It further inflates the illusion that I live someplace relevant.